SC Supreme Court Report Card Won’t Be Made Public
AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION REVIEW TO BE “CONFIDENTIALLY” PROVIDED TO CHIEF JUSTICE
FITSNews – March 4, 2008 – A so-called objective review of the S.C. Supreme Court’s controversial disciplinary system won’t be made public, but it will be confidentially provided to Chief Justice Jean Toal and her fellow Justices, according to a memo from the American Bar Association.
“The Committee provides its report and recommendations to the highest court on a confidential basis,” the ABA memo reads.
The ABA committee, which is in Columbia this week preparing its report on the state’s controversial attorney discipline system, is under fire for allowing the Chief Justice to select which attorneys are permitted to speak with it.
“If you’re not a ‘Friend of Jean,’ you get a rejection notice real fast,” said one attorney who spoke with FITSNews on the condition of anonymity. “If anyone in the legislature was relying on the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility to help bring honesty, integrity and fairness to our South Carolina attorney discipline system and to the Supreme Court, they are wasting their time.”
One ‘Friend of Jean’ who will be speaking with the panel is Greenville attorney Beattie Ashmore, who currently serves on the State’s Commission on Lawyer Conduct despite the fact that he lied to a judge in 2002 while representing former USC running back Derek Watson.
Sources in Greenville tell FITSNews that Ashmore knowingly lied about Watson’s failure to perform court-mandated community service, but after an alleged intervention by Toal his offense was reduced to “failure to keep proper records.” Ashmore was fined $500 for that offense.
This isn’t the first time Justice Toal has been accused of stacking the deck with her sycophants. Just last month, she was accused of controlling access to another ABA panel which is scheduled to visit South Carolina later this fall. That panel is charged with determining whether or not to grant full accreditation to the Charleston School of Law, which barely met the ABA’s benchmark for that designation last year when the Court made the controversial decision to throw out an entire section of the State Bar Exam last year.
Developing …
Comments
By truthseeker on March 4th, 2008 at 11:10 am
Will,
I am a big time fan of an open and accountable government.You know “sunshine” and all that stuff .
Any suggestions as to where I should move so I can experience what that would be like?
By Not Sayin', Just Sayin' on March 4th, 2008 at 11:25 am
Will,
I am a big fan of a supreme court and chief justice that aren’t total sources of embarrassment and shame.
Any suggestions as to where I should move so I can experience what that would be like?
By Rock and Roll on March 4th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Will,
Love all of your updated news; however, the “. . . who spoke with FITSNews on the condition of anonymity. . . ” bit is getting a little old. Please, stop being afraid of protecting your sources and report with balls. You have already pissed everyone off, why not just go all the way.
By Todd on March 4th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
The South Carolina attorney discipline process is not complicated. It’s all at absolute and complete discretion of the South Carolina Supreme Court. Who’s yo Daddy and who were his people?
By truthseeker on March 4th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Regarding anonymous sources, keep using them as much as you want to Sic Willie. We do not hold you up to the “standards” of the old Main Stream media- we want the cutting edge scoop – even if it is from a democrat- as reported by your DailyKos communist sympathizers
By fitsnews on March 4th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Rock-n-Roll,
Like the New York Times (or for that matter, The State in its last bar exam story) we will continue to use anonymous sources.
Obviously we love it when people have the balls to go on the record, and we wish more of them would start doing so, but protecting sources on this website is one of those things that is permanently non-negotiable.
Our sources are the reason we get the scoop we get, and we’re not about to rat a single one of them out.
-FITSNews
By Not Sayin', Just Sayin' on March 4th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
So “the ‘. . . who spoke with FITSNews on the condition of anonymity. . . ‘ bit is getting a little old” to some of us. I’m sure it was getting a little old to Richard Nixon in 1972, but where would be today if information provided by Deep Throat hadn’t been used by Woodward & Bernstein?
GO WILL!!!!
By Scandal on March 4th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Wow, that article linked really shows that Beatty Ashmore is a liar an unethical guy. And anyone can find an unnamed source to back-up anything. What a joke.
By Not Sayin', Just Sayin' on March 4th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Wow, well, it’s impossible to argue with hyperbole like that. But regardless of whether Will’s source about Beatty Ashmore’s misconduct has any credibility, I don’t see any of our learned posters arguing that the ABA is right to keep mum about its assessment of our attorney discipline “process.”
As for King Jean, it is a delusional, cranky drunk who acts as if it believes it is above the very law it is charged with upholding. It has made our judicial department and bar exam laughingstock, and even its most ardent supporters can’t honestly dispute those facts with any credibility. If it does not provide full disclosure of the ABA’s assessment of our attorney discipline “process,” one can fairly assume such stonewalling is merely an effort to avoid further embarrassment for Toal and Toal’s half-witted minion, Disciplinary Counsel Lee Coggiola.
Why Toal’s fellow justices don’t do the right thing and make public the ABA’s report is baffling and disheartening. After all, what can King Jean really do to them?
By Mincing Words on March 4th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Wow, did I miss something? Has the attorney disciplinary system gotten more out of control under Coggiola? You gotta be kidding me. Talk about a lapdog- that would be Henry Richardson. How ’bout trash him too, since Coggiola has only been in that position what, two years, as opposed to the reign of terror under Richardson that lasted for decades (at least it seemed like decades)
For the record- I don’t know either Coggiola or Richardson on a personal level, just professionally. So I don’t have an undisclosed bias.
By Not Sayin', Just Sayin' on March 5th, 2008 at 8:17 am
Henry undoubtedly let ODC run amuck, must notably when he found that King Jean’s drunken bumper-car ride through Shandon happened without her breaking the law. But his work at ODC is certainly not done: he’s still there as “senior counsel.†See http://www.sccourts.org/whatsnew/displaywhatsnew.cfm?indexID=385
No, Coggiola is not a crook by anyone’s estimation, but her brainpower undoubtedly leaves something to be desired. As the Judicial Merit Selection Commission noted when it decided not to nominate her for the Court of Appeals seat she naively sought, “her performance on the Commission’s practice and procedure questions fell below the level of expectation generally met by an applicant.†See http://www.scsenate.org/sess117_2007-2008/hj07/01-11-07.doc
So what does Toal do after Coggiola’s public embarrassment? It puts Coggiola in charge of “grading†other lawyers’ conduct. Nice. In exchange for helping a fellow feminist save face and giving her a $30K raise to boot, the least it could expect was a lapdog … and a lapdog she got. While Henry and Jean run the show (into the ground), Coggiola has provided a fresh (or rather “unfamiliarâ€) face for ODC while making a joke out of the ABA investigations by severely limiting the input available to the ABA. Meanwhile, Toal continues to further erode public confidence in its profession and it by making a mockery of the bar exam and doing the old hit ‘n run on cars at the airport. Like a certain former first lady who is too obtuse to know when she’s overstayed her welcome, Toal is going to defiantly languish in public disdain and ridicule until her laudable, groundbreaking achievement of being the state’s first female chief justice is forever overshadowed by her unspeakable conduct in office.
By Todd on March 5th, 2008 at 10:13 am
Last Fall, after Fitsnews broke a story – which has never been denied – that the Feds were looking into Prince Henry Richardson’s ODC practices and implementation of the rules, Henry was quietly relieved of his duties at the ODC.. Like, 5 days later. He is now special legal counsel to the Sumter County Sheriff’s Department. Is a TERI employee allowed to make such a move? I hope Reggie Lloyd took the Queen Jean-Prince Henry file with him to SLED.
By Mincing Words on March 5th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
very interesting news, Todd! FITSNEWS, what do you know about ‘HRH Richardson’s employment status?
By Pete on March 5th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
Mincing Words. I didn’t believe it either. I called the Sumter County Sheriff’s Department and got some really up tight angry at the world major who finally admitted it. Henry is trying little cases in magistrate’s court for the Sheriff’s department. Call ‘em tomorrow yo’self.
By none ya business on August 7th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Justice Toal & all the rest of them are just a bunch of crooked un accountable crooks that protect big business and the christian judeao morons….not to mention mot of the SC attys are in on this as well. It is a rare person in SC who steps up to the plate..What a monron place to live in..
By Not in your lifetime on August 10th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
The atty disciplinary system and process in SC is pathetic. An atty has no constitutional rights and is presumed guilty. Richardson was a joke and the woman who took his place is no better. Also the Charleston College of Law is a fourth rate school where any one can go if they pay enough money or know one of the founders.
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